Inherent in the modern theory of Quantum Mechanics is the prediction of vacuum energy fluctuations known as Zero-Point Energy (ZPE).These fluctuations persist even at temperatures of absolute zero (i.e. zero degrees Kelvin - thus giving rise to the term, "zero point").King [1] has described ZPE as being a manifestation of an energy flux passing orthogonally through our 3-dimensional space and 1-dimensional time reference frame from higher dimensions. Instead of a passive flux, however, ZPE may be the energy source creating the universe as we know it!

The higher dimensional quality of ZPE is the essence of Hyperdimensional Physics, and has been discussed by Wheeler[2] and Misner [3].The nonlocality aspect of this multi-dimensionality is also implied by the EPR Experiment [4], Bell's Theorem [5], and hidden variable concepts [6].Feynman [7] and Dirac [8] describe quantum mechanical propagators summing across the higher dimensions of superspace and Superstringsrequiring ten or twenty-seven dimensions to account for the observed phenomena [9].Puthoff [10] has also theorized that gravity is a zero-point fluctuation force, thus providing a unified theory of gravitation and quantum electrodynamics.

These theories give credence to the concept that zero point energy may represent a higher dimensional flow of energy through our 4-dimensional space-time frame of reference.It's as if our "observable universe" can be viewed as a "flatland slot" of a spatial dimension on the order of Planck's Constant (6.626 X 10-34 J-sec) in which the ZPE flows through our universe and in the process manifests the physical basis of our perceived reality.

The amount of energy available in the vacuum (i.e. the Zero Point Energy) has been noted by Wheeler [2] to be on the order of 1094 g/cm3!This is an enormous number -- a "1" followed by ninety-four zeroes -- and represents a virtually infinite source of energy.Inasmuch as nuclear energy densities are on the order of only 1014 g/cm3, elementary particles -- and ultimately matter itself -- may represent an almost negligible, second-order effect in the locally violent condition that characterizes the vacuum.The ZPE is, with its Hyperdimensional Physics, where it's at!

Non-Linear Thermodynamics

ZPE is, however, random and has been considered by many physicists to be essentially inaccessible for practical use.However, Ilya Prigogine won the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in demonstrating that under certain conditions, the ZPE can be brought into a state of "coherence" or what is termed in physics as "vacuum polarization".It is this cohering of the vacuum or vacuum polarization that appears responsible for the creation of elementary particles.Furthermore, Cole and Puthoff [11] have demonstrated theoretically that, in principle, energy and heat can be extracted from the vacuum without violating Entropy, i.e., the Second of the Laws of Thermodynamics!

Prigogine's thermodynamics [12] requires three conditions for a system of random microscopic fluctuations to become cohered into macroscopic fluctuations.These conditions are that the system be: 1) non-linear, 2) far from thermodynamic equilibrium, and 3) a dissipative structure (i.e., there must be an energy flux through the system in order to maintain it).The third condition is automatically satisfied by the ZPE, while the other two conditions are readily accessible.Non-linear systems are relatively common, and experimentation on systems far from equilibrium is rapidly yielding significant results.

Interestingly, the lack of research on tapping the ZPE to date has been due to the fact that physics over the last several centuries has effectively specialized in systems which are in thermodynamic equilibrium, and, at the same time, has tended to avoid non-linear systems because of their mathematical complexity.Physics has, in effect, viewed those parts of the universe which operate like machines and are closed systems.Closed systems, however, form only a small part of the physical universe, whereas open systems, which exchange energy or matter (and information), make up the bulk of the universe.Biological and social systems are, for example, open -- implying that any attempt to understand them in mechanistic terms is doomed to failure.An added implication is that most of reality is in a continuing state of change, disorder and process -- vice the orderly, stable, in-equilibrium ideal of classical physics.

Theoretically all systems contain subsystems, which are in a continual state of fluctuation (as in the case of ZPE, and as so dramatically illustration in Chaos Theory).It is possible that periodically a single or combined fluctuation may become sufficiently powerful as a result of positive feedback to shatter the pre-existing organization.This revolutionary moment is termed a "bifurcation point".According to Prigogine [12], at the bifurcation point it is inherently impossible to determine in advance which direction change will take; whether the system will disintegrate into "chaos" or leap to a new, more differentiated, higher level of "order" or organization -- a dissipative structure which requires more energy to sustain it than the simpler structure which it replaced.Prigogine's key concept is that order and organization, through a process of self-organization, can actually arise spontaneously out of disorder and chaos.The critical point for our purposes is the inability in advance to determine precisely which direction change will take once a bifurcation point is reached!

In March 1989, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann [13] conducted their now famous press conference in which they announced the possibility of having achieved "cold fusion" in an electrolysis experiment using a Palladium cathode surrounded by a Platinum anode wire, both immersed in a heavy water solution.In the last five and one half years, "cold fusion" researchers throughout the world have achieved consistent and remarkable results, even in the midst of unscientific and what can only be labeled as vicious attacks on the experiments and the experimenters [14].Excess energy, far in excess of the input energy, has been achieved in a variety of experimental arrangements by a host of laboratories, some of which were set up intentionally and exclusively for "cold fusion" research.Preceding and coincident with the cold fusion furor has been the conception, development, and in some cases, the actual demonstration of numerous devices that convert zero point energy into useful, practical energy.Fox [15] has provided an excellent overview of these advanced technologies.

A theoretical analysis strongly indicates that the results of cold fusion and related free energy research are the product of a variety of methods of cohering the vacuum -- a process whereby the virtually limitless energy of the vacuum can be manifested in our four-dimensional time and space.In effect, these experiments establish the validity of the ZPE and the ability of physics to tap into that energy source on the basis of Prigogine's non-linear thermodynamics.As the development of a radically new energy source rapidly progress, the New Energy Ramifications promise to revolutionize science and society in the most astounding paradigm shift in the history of Western civilization.

Included within the already astounding results of gaining excess energy from the vacuum is the evidence of these same experimental apparatus achieving transmutation of elements at low temperatures!Also, Reifenschweiler [16] has reported on a 1961 experiment in which he observed a reduction in radioactivity when tritium was heated.Finally, cold fusion has also been suggested by Komaki [17] in the Biological Transmutation of elements in the fashion originally described by Kervran [18].

Implications

The astounding implications of these theories include, beginning in the near term (and likely prior to 2012 A.D. <g>):

*Transmutation of elements, including the ability to eliminate toxic and radioactive wastes easily,

*Theoretical understanding of such "non-physical" concepts as Consciousness, visualization successes, psychic healing, and other metaphysical abilities.

The implications of the near-term availability of virtually infinite energy to humankind is staggering.While futurists such as Lindenman foresee The World of New Energy in which there are "transition technologies" until Zero Point Energy become available in a host of forms in the very near future, Fox [20] has already described seven separate techniques for producing nuclear reactions (along with nuclear by-products including heat), ranging from capillary cold fusion to proton conductors.The feasibility of these ideas are exemplified in the establishment of companies, such as Nuclear Solutions, <http://www.nuclearsolutions.com/> dedicated to eradication of nuclear wastes, and incidentally in the process, the production of useful energy as “the frosting on the cake.” The near-term inevitability will arise in large part because of the range of possible variations in tapping the ZPE, and the fact that so many researchers are intent upon an "Oklahoma land rush" approach to bringing the technology to market.All of this will occur with or without adequate psychological preparation for most members of society.

There will undoubtedly be resistance (to put it mildly) to this grand-daddy of all paradigm shifts.This is understandable inasmuch as it implies over the course of the next decade, the wholesale elimination of scores of industries from coal mining (which was showcased on magazine covers in July 2002 as the worst pollution source, i.e. “CO2AL”) and oil importing to electrical utilities (along with the EMF Hazards of their health-degrading electrical transmission lines).Imagine the reaction of utilities when its massive distribution network abruptly changes from a major asset to a major liability!

ZPE availability will also reduce the oil industry to a plastics industry, and in all likelihood eliminate the need for manufacturing automobiles.Along with automobiles' demise will be the elimination of railroads and the trucking industry (as well as highway construction, maintenance, and with any luck at all, speeding tickets).There is also the elimination of the tax revenues from gasoline and other fuels, implying the very strong possibility that governments will not be a strong advocate of the new technology.(The fact governments are bought and paid for by vested interests of the Corporate State is also a problem.)

The radical and abrupt transformation of the transportation industry is due to the fact that essentially all transportation vehicles will be able to be replaced by flying vehicles.Even without Inertial Propulsion, antigravity, and/or Levitation devices in-place, the fact that there will be massive energy availability implies that vehicles will have the capability of flying with far-greater flexibility than helicopters or Harrier Jets.It is important to realize that aircraft wings are just fuel savers; it's not necessary to have wings in order to fly (nor runways and airports).Tinsley [14] has suggested that people "one day will shudder with horror when they look back on aircraft which need to travel at several hundred miles per hour just to stay in the air."

Along with the elimination of autos, trucks, trains, and conventional forms of aircraft will be the elimination of such environmental and societal problems as smog, oil spills, disposal of old tires, lost luggage at airports, lost kids at airports, lost airports, and most everything else associated with a fossil fuel energy economy.

The societal and work considerations are enormous, as people discover they must learn whole new skills to cope, and at the same time realize they can live anywhere in the world.If, for example, one is attracted to the Canadian Northwest, one will have the energy to heat the local environment to one's own particular taste.Or perhaps the Baja peninsula where sea water can be readily desaltinized and any amount of surrounding area made green.The possibilities are endless, and because of this, the resistance to these incredibly positive changes will be enormous!

In fact, despite all the positive attributes of the rapidly developing technologies, massive resistance is almost guaranteed.There is a fundamental resistance to change, what Eric Hoffer termed The Ordeal of Change.Add to this inbred resistance to change, the enormous power of vested interests to maintain the status quo at all costs, and one has the ultimate bifurcation point.From stability and near equilibrium, spontaneous events will be proceeding to chaos and, eventually, to a new, unknowable re-organization.It may not be pretty, but it’s going to be exciting!

Tinsley [14] has also suggested one alternative in getting through the difficult transition from fossil fuels to a ZPE based society:"Hurry.Go as fast as is safely possible.Let the huge demand for the new products absorb the people displaced by the loss of demand for the old ones."This has a great deal of validity, in that too much time and effort can be spent in propping up the old industries and trying to prevent the inevitable growth of the new industries.The key word is, after all, inevitability -- which then leads to the other key word: flexibility, the need for).The technology will be too widespread to be controlled.Government dictates to slow or control the process will have about as much effect as traffic lights would have had during the Oklahoma land rush.Still, it would indeed be foolish to discount the potential ordeal occasioned by the attempts of government to deny the benefits of "free energy".

A good example of governments' active discouragement of the new technology is the refusal of the U. S. Patent office to consider any patent application based on cold fusion.Meanwhile the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) is prohibited, by law, from funding any research in cold fusion.Sadly, DOE has spent billions on Tokamak ("hot fusion") research -- where despite forty years of research no excess energy has ever been achieved.

But the more notable failure of government, particularly the U. S. Government, is in the area of toxic and radioactive wastes.Currently, the U. S. Government spends tens of billions of dollar each year to manage toxic and radioactive wastes.And of course, certain, major corporations receive this money to manage the wastes, when technology may exist for the wholesale elimination of both toxic and radioactive wastes!DOE, for example, has over the years turned down proposals for research into the elimination of nuclear wastes, despite the evidence which demonstrates the viability of the technology [16, 20].The lesson here is that the U. S. Government will be more intent on preserving the vested interests than in serving the greater majority of individuals and citizens.

Many quantum mechanical events, which were otherwise unexplainable, can now be easily understood with the allowance of additional spatial dimensions.For example, tunneling supercurrents [21], space-like quantum transitions [22], two-slit experiments [23], and the EPR paradox [4] can now be readily explained.The EPR Experiment (and its siblings, Mach’s Principle and Alice in Barium-Titanate Land) virtually cry out for an inter-connectedness of all parts of the universe, with the connections being made via alternative dimensions (as in Hyperdimensional Physics).

Tunneling, it might be noted, is a process where an elementary particle passes through an otherwise impenetrable barrier.If "tunneling" is viable in nuclear physics, then why not in psychic healing, where a healing hand goes through an otherwise impenetrable barrier of the skin (and without cutting the skin)?The logical extension is that psychic healing is an extension of the concept of tapping into the ZPE, but in this case, using Consciousness instead of technology!And if psychic healing is thus understood, why not all forms of legitimate psychic manifestation being understood as a result of tapping into the ZPE?

In effect, if Zero Point Energy, the energy of the vacuum, is in reality an energy flux from other dimensions, it may well be that the observable universe is created from the vacuum (as in Superstrings).Furthermore, the creation may be caused by Consciousness, and if consciousness did indeed create the universe, it can undoubtedly create minor changes or modifications to the original design!Consciousness can, in all likelihood, replace the space energy technology.Perhaps the only purpose of creating the technology in the first place, is to convince ourselves (including our subconscious minds) that our consciousness can, in fact, do all of these things.

This realization of conscious manifestation of virtually anythingfrom energy generation to levitation to nuclear transmutation may represent a far greater paradigm shift than simply tapping into the Zero Point Energy.Beyond the realization and understanding of the vast potential of these interesting times comes the manifesting and creation of a world never yet visualized.We are, in brief, at the ultimate bifurcation point, where order and stability will be abruptly replaced by chaos and a wholly unpredictable, spontaneous generation of a new order -- a new order which will require a much higher level of conscious energy input in order to maintain it.